Well so much for sending a crook to jail. But the big picture is that this highlights the crooks of the Bush's justice department. When a crook persecutes another crook you can't expect it to be wholesome proceedings. A good question to ask however is how does this affect other Bush convictions. Stevens for all intents and purposes is out of the Senate for good, albeit now a repug martyr, coming to a talk show circuit near you.
Is this a prelude to Gov Siegelman's case review, and if so how do you think Holder would proceed in assessing wrong doing in that case. What court is Gov Siegelman's case being reviewed in? Would it make sense to fill as many vacancies in these appeal courts first before sending requests to have convictions overturned, because you know the odds are weak that a repug court would overturn repug convictions (it's an unfortunate state of affairs we live in). This is not to say there are any decent repug judges ou don't put ideology above the facts but that not very common these days.
Judge may dismiss Ted Stevens' conviction today
http://www.google.com/...
By NEDRA PICKLER and MATT APUZZO – 56 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Sen. Ted Stevens is getting another day in court today, and this time a federal judge is expected to dismiss his corruption conviction after prosecutors acknowledged mishandling the case.
The Justice Department has asked U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to toss out Stevens' conviction and vacate his indictment. If the motion is granted as expected, it will kill a high-profile victory against congressional corruption reached last fall when a jury found the senator had lied about gifts and home renovations.
Stevens narrowly lost re-election just days later. He had been in the Senate 40 years, making him the longest-serving Republican senator when he was defeated.
He was convicted of seven felony counts of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and home renovations from a wealthy oil contractor. He had appealed his conviction and had been awaiting sentencing.